BJP issues show-cause notice to Karnataka MLA who criticized party leaders

Even as it faces public anger over the delay in releasing central assistance to the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday censured its MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, who had lashed out at party leaders earlier this week over the delay.

Yatnal had said that though the state had elected 25 BJP MPs, out of the total 28 seats, these MPs had not raised their voice in the matter. He said the party must remember that the nation and state were bigger than the party.

He had also expressed displeasure over Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeting about the floods in Bihar, when he had not done so about Karnataka. “People feel that this is politics targeted at finishing one person,” Yatnal had said, indicating that the delay was due to a tussle between chief minister Yediyurappa and the central leadership.

Om Pathak, member secretary of the central disciplinary committee of the BJP, issued a show-cause notice in which he asked Yatnal to respond within 10 days why it should not take action against him.

Pathak said Yatnal had “insulted and denigrated the herculean efforts being made by your own party’s government in the state and Centre in providing due and timely relief to the people of Karnataka during floods in the state”.

The notice also said that Yatnal had threatened the leaders of the party by “suggesting to [them] and inciting them to teach the party leaders a lesson by thrashing them, thus calling for physical violence and causing unrest amongst people by spreading lies”.

Pathak said, Yatnal had spread lies by stating that there were two power centres, one in New Delhi and one in Bengaluru. “Further, contrary to the truth and reality, you also accused the party leadership of not paying enough attention to the issues of Karnataka”.

Pathak accused Yatnal of attempting to spread lies at a time when the party was working hard to lift Karnataka “out of the political and administrative chaos created by the previous coalition government of the JD(S) and Congress”. Finally, Pathak said, Yatnal’s statements were in breach of the party discipline.

Repeated attempts to reach Yatnal went unanswered.

CM Yediyurappa too came under fire from farmers in the northern Belagavi district, which was the worst affected by the heavy rains and floods that hit the state last month. Around 80 people lost their lives and over 8 lakh people were left homeless as floods and rains affected 17 of the state’s 30 districts.

Farmers attempted to gherao the chief minister, as they expressed anger over the delay in rehabilitation work. So far, as per state government estimates, it has mobilized a total of ₹3,000 crore, Yediyurappa said on Thursday.

Faced with increasing anger among those affected, Yediyurappa chose to visit the flood affected districts and his Belagavi visit was part of this. “We will divert money towards the rehabilitation work,” he said in Belagavi.

Former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy said there were no problems for the state government to provision a higher amount towards relief. “There are no problems for the government to provide more money towards relief, I can say that because I demitted office only two months ago,” he said. “Looking at how a BJP chief minister is unable to meet Modi it appears that he does not have faith in the chief minister,” he said.

A three-day session of the state assembly is set to begin in Bengaluru on October 10. And the BJP is likely to face stiff opposition from the Congress and JD(S), which have demanded a longer session. The JD(S) is also set to hold a protest against the delay in funds release on October 10.

Meanwhile, attacks against Yediyurappa from within his own party continued. The BJP’s Chamrajanagar MP V Srinivasa Prasad blamed the chief minister for not having held an all-party meeting, or even a meeting with MPs.

“He should have taken an all-party delegation and put pressure on the Centre and also called MPs for a meeting and pressed for our demands,” Prasad told reporters in his constituency.

Prasad also said in the name of discipline, people were asked not speak about it. “This is not correct, they should see the trouble people are in here,” he added.